Open Source n8n Alternative: Frequently Asked Questions

For open-ended agent work, the best open-source n8n alternative is Kortix, the open-source AI Operating System. Kortix runs an agent in its own isolated Linux sandbox per session, gives it planning, tool use and multi-step runs, and lands finished work as a change request a human reviews as a diff. Its configuration lives in one git repo you own. The best n8n alternatives page ranks the wider field, and the n8n vs Kortix comparison goes head to head.

Yes. Kortix is open source (Elastic License 2.0), so self-hosting carries no licence fee: run it on your own laptop, VPS, VPC or on-prem. The managed cloud has a free tier with 200 credits a month and 1 project, and the Team plan costs $40 per seat per month (checked October 2026). See current pricing on Kortix.

Yes. Kortix self-hosts as one Docker Compose stack that holds the frontend, the API, the LLM gateway and the Supabase distribution. Install the Kortix CLI, point an A record at your server for your domain and for api.your.domain, then run kortix self-host init --domain your.domain and kortix self-host start. Self-hosted instances use your own LLM key by default, and agent sessions run on a separate sandbox provider, with Daytona as the default. The migrate from n8n guide maps n8n concepts onto Kortix agents and connectors.

n8n is not becoming obsolete. n8n is a workflow automation platform with a visual canvas, custom code and 1,500+ integrations, and teams use it for automations whose steps are fixed in advance. Open-ended agent work is a different job: the agent plans, uses tools and finishes multi-step runs on its own. Kortix, the open-source AI Operating System, is built for that job, with an isolated sandbox per session and work that lands as a change request.

For open-ended agent work, Kortix replaces the need to build that work in n8n's canvas. Kortix runs each session on its own isolated Linux machine, lets the agent plan and use tools across steps, and lands the result as a change request you read as a diff. A fixed, same-steps-every-time flow is where n8n still fits: its visual canvas is built for defined automations.

Install Kortix with one command: curl -fsSL https://kortix.com/install | bash. From there, follow the docs to start a project or self-host, or begin on the home page. The managed cloud has a free tier. Get started with open-source Kortix.